Category: News
Naperville News Digest: Neuqua Valley students win top awards at silent film fest; League of Women Voters holding two candidate forums
Neuqua Valley students win top awards at silent film fest
A film created by students at Neuqua Valley High School was one of three to be awarded Outstanding Achievement in Cinema at the 9th annual Student Silent Film Festival in Downers Grove.
The school’s film, “King of Hearts,” also received the Audience Choice award.
More than 300 people attended the Jan. 28 film festival, where the submitted films created by students from 12 Chicago area high schools were screened at the Tivoli Theatre with live accompaniment by Derek Berg, one of the event’s founders.
Homewood-Flossmoor High School and Vernon Hills High School also won an Outstanding Achievement in Cinema award.
A panel of judges, who are professionals in entertainment or art education, selected the winners based on the quality of the story narrative, development, camera work, lighting and editing.
“The quality of the entries was outstanding, showing a mastery of visual storytelling that seems to get more impressive every year,” another founder, Ed Newmann, said in a statement. “It’s rewarding to see such a huge crowd appreciate the talent coming out of our local high schools.”
League of Women Voters holding two candidate forums
The League of Women Voters of Naperville will hold two online forums on Tuesday, Feb. 10, for Naperville-area candidates facing opposition in the March 17 primary.
At 6:30 p.m. Democratic candidates running for DuPage County Board District 5, which includes Naperville, will answer questions. Seeking to fill one four-year term are incumbent Sadia Covert and challengers Marylee Leu and Ian Holzhauer.
It will be followed by an 8 p.m. forum with the Republican candidates running for the U.S. House representing the 11th District, the seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary.
Republican primary candidates are Jeff Walter, Michael Pierce, Tedora Brown and Charlie Kim. Brown’s nominating petitions are facing an objection, according to the DuPage County clerk’s office.
All candidates have been invited to the event, organizers said. Pierce was the only not to have confirmed, officials said.
Registration at us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uw2z19pST6qDhLjEth_oIQ is required to receive a Zoom link. If registration exceeds the Zoom capacity, the forum can be viewed on the League’s Facebook page. After the event, videos of the forums will be posted to the League’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/channel.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/02/naperville-neuqua-film-award-league-candidates-forum/
Clintons Bend The Knee To Comer, Agree To Testify In House Epstein Inquiry
Clintons Bend The Knee To Comer, Agree To Testify In House Epstein Inquiry
Just hours after Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) rebuffed Bill and Hillary Clinton’s attorney’s last-ditch conditional offer, the former president and former secretary of state appear to have acquiesced and agreed to key demands from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee to testify about Jeffrey Epstein in a closed-door deposition.
The initial correspondence, obtained by CNN, revealed that the Clintons’ team has been in search of an off-ramp for days.
Attorneys for Bill and Hillary have been in discussion with the Republican-led committee multiple times since lawmakers from both parties voted in January to hold the Clintons in contempt for refusing to appear for in-person depositions as part of the panel’s investigation into Epstein.
“It has been nearly six months since your clients first received the Committee’s subpoena, more than three months since the original date of their depositions, and nearly three weeks since they failed to appear for their depositions commensurate with the Committee’s lawful subpoenas,” Comer wrote.
“Your clients’ desire for special treatment is both frustrating and an affront to the American people’s desire for transparency.”
As CNN reports, according to the letter dated January 31, the Clintons’ lawyers laid out the terms under which the former president would sit for a voluntary, transcribed interview.
He would sit for four hours in New York City for an interview limited to the scope of the Epstein probe, they said.
Lawmakers from both parties and their staff could ask questions, and the lawyers said both the Clintons and the committee could have their own transcriber present, according to the letter.
Comer rejected the offer from the Clintons’ attorneys as “unreasonable” and said he could not accept such terms.
He could not agree, he said, to changing the interview from a sworn deposition to a voluntary interview, and rejected the way in which the attorneys sought to limit the interview’s scope.
“But given that he has already failed to appear for a deposition and has refused for several months to provide the Committee with in-person testimony, the Committee cannot simply have faith that President Clinton will not refuse to answer questions at a transcribed interview, resulting in the Committee being right back where it is today,” the Kentucky Republican wrote.
By rejecting the Clintons’ initial offer, Comer had all but ensured that the House would hold a final vote this week on the contempt resolutions.
“Your clients’ desire for special treatment is both frustrating and an affront to the American people’s desire for transparency,” Mr. Comer wrote in a letter to the Clintons’ lawyers on Monday that was also obtained by The New York Times.
Indeed, as The NYTimes reports, after some Democrats on the panel joined Republicans in a vote to recommend charging them with criminal contempt, an extraordinary first step in referring them to the Justice Department for prosecution, the Clintons ultimately waved the white flag and agreed to fully comply with Mr. Comer’s demands.
In an email sent to Mr. Comer on Monday evening, attorneys for the Clintons said their clients would “appear for depositions on mutually agreeable dates” and asked that the House not move forward with a contempt vote, which had been slated for Wednesday.
However, it was not immediately clear Monday evening whether Comer would accept the Clintons’ terms and, subsequently, whether the contempt votes would still take place.
Comer said:
“The Clintons’ counsel has said they agree to terms, but those terms lack clarity yet again and they have provided no dates for their depositions. The only reason they have said they agree to terms is because the House has moved forward with contempt.”
“I will clarify the terms they are agreeing to and then discuss next steps with my committee members,” Comer said in a statement.
For Mr. Clinton to testify in the Epstein investigation would be nearly unprecedented.
No former president has appeared before Congress since 1983, when President Gerald R. Ford did so to discuss the celebration of the 1987 bicentennial of the enactment of the Constitution.
When Mr. Trump was subpoenaed in 2022 by the select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, after he had left office, he sued the panel to try to block it. The panel ultimately withdrew the subpoena.
It was a victory for the Republican chairman, shifting the focus of his panel’s Epstein investigation onto prominent Democrats who once associated with the disgraced financier and his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/02/2026 – 21:20
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/clintons-bend-knee-comer-agree-testify-house-epstein-inquiry
El comisionado de la NFL Roger Goodell dice que ampliar la temporada a 18 juegos ‘no es seguro’
Por ROB MAADDI
SAN JOSÉ, California, EE.UU. (AP) — No tan rápido con una temporada de la NFL de 18 juegos.
Una semana después de que el propietario de los Patriots, Robert Kraft, lo hiciera parecer inevitable, el comisionado de la NFL, Roger Goodell, dijo que expandir la temporada regular a 18 juegos “no es un hecho”.
“No hemos tenido ninguna discusión formal al respecto y, francamente, muy pocas, si es que alguna, conversaciones informales”, expresó Goodell el lunes en su conferencia anual sobre el estado de la NFL antes del Super Bowl. “He escuchado a personas hablar de ello en el contexto. No es un hecho que lo haremos. No es algo que asumamos que sucederá. Es algo que queremos discutir con el liderazgo del sindicato”.
El martes pasado, Kraft hizo parecer que los 18 juegos eran una conclusión inevitable.
“Quiero decirles que ahora vamos a empujar con todas nuestras fuerzas para hacer que los juegos internacionales sean más importantes para nosotros”, comentó Kraft a 98.5 FM la semana pasada. “Cada equipo jugará 18 (juegos de temporada regular) y dos (juegos de pretemporada) y eliminaremos uno de los juegos de pretemporada, y cada equipo cada año tendrá un juego en el extranjero”.
Claramente, la noticia llegó a Goodell.
Mencionó que la Asociación de Jugadores de la NFL pasará por una transición de liderazgo y que la conversación será compleja. Goodell señaló preocupaciones sobre la seguridad de los jugadores, cuestiones competitivas, la posible necesidad de agregar otra semana de descanso y el tamaño de las plantillas como áreas que deben abordarse a través de la negociación colectiva.
El contrato colectivo actual (CBA) entre la NFL y el sindicato de jugadores expira en 2030.
“Mientras (la NFLPA) determina sus prioridades, nosotros estamos haciendo lo mismo a nivel de propiedad para que cuando nos reunamos, podamos abordar estos temas juntos”, manifestó Goodell.
El impulso para un 18vo juego despegó cuando Goodell hizo una aparición en el Pat McAfee Show en el draft de la NFL 2024 en Detroit y dijo: “Preferiría reemplazar un juego de pretemporada con un juego de temporada regular cualquier día, eso es simplemente elegir calidad. Si llegamos a 18 (temporada regular) y dos (pretemporada), eso no es algo irrazonable”.
Lo ha retractado anteriormente, pero no hasta este punto.
La NFL agregó un 17mo juego en 2021 en el CBA más reciente.
Tisch-Epstein
La NFL investigará al copropietario de los Giants de Nuea York, Steve Tisch, y su relación con Jeffrey Epstein después de que su nombre apareciera más de 400 veces en archivos divulgados por el Departamento de Justicia de Estados Unidos en relación con Epstein.
“Absolutamente revisaremos todos los hechos”, afirmó Goodell. “Revisaremos el contexto de esos y trataremos de entenderlo. Veremos cómo se enmarca eso bajo la política de conducta personal de la liga. Creo que tomaremos un paso a la vez. Primero obtengamos los hechos”.
Tisch dijo la semana pasada que conocía a Epstein y que “intercambiaron correos electrónicos sobre mujeres adultas” y “discutieron sobre películas, filantropía e inversiones”. Pero Tisch, de 76 años, negó haber ido a la isla de Epstein y nunca fue acusado en la investigación.
Epstein se suicidó en una celda de la cárcel de Nueva York en agosto de 2019, un mes después de ser acusado de cargos federales de tráfico sexual.
Los documentos fueron divulgados bajo la Ley de Transparencia de los Archivos de Epstein, la ley promulgada después de meses de presión pública y política que requiere que el gobierno abra sus archivos sobre el difunto financiero y su confidente y exnovia, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Juegos internacionales
La NFL jugará su primer juego de temporada regular en Francia la próxima temporada con los Saints de Nueva Orleans listos para viajar a París este año y la liga también regresará a la Ciudad de México por primera vez desde 2022, aumentando el total de juegos internacionales a nueve en 2026.
La liga anunció los planes para jugar un juego en el Stade de France la próxima temporada además de un acuerdo multianual para seguir jugando juegos de temporada regular en el Estadio Santiago Bernabéu del Real Madrid, y un juego que se jugará en la Ciudad de México en diciembre.
Goodell dijo que 16 juegos internacionales sigue siendo el objetivo.
___
Deportes en español AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
Israel Surrenders To The Truth: Admits 70,000 Killed In Gaza
Israel Surrenders To The Truth: Admits 70,000 Killed In Gaza
Via Brian McGlinchey at Stark Realities
Throughout the Israel Defense Forces’ post-Oct 7 war on Gaza, the State of Israel and its collaborators and sympathizers around the world have ridiculed the alarming death toll maintained by Palestinian health authorities, dismissing the count as a gross exaggeration aimed at maliciously demonizing Israel. Now, after more than two years of casting doubts, the IDF has finally admitted its own estimates match the Gaza Health Ministry’s accounting of some 70,000 confirmed dead.
It’s a grand example of Israel’s long-running practice of vehemently denying accusations — and vilifying accusers — before eventually acknowledging their validity. Those acknowledgements usually come after overwhelming evidence has been produced, by which time the denials have provided some degree of protection for Israel’s standing. Where the Gaza death toll is concerned, the IDF’s capitulation seems to some extent preemptive, in anticipation of an eventual opening of Gaza to journalists from around the world. However, the long string of denials helped muddy the waters, giving Israel and its allies a degree of cover as the IDF’s astonishing death-and-destruction blitz was carried out.
Palestinians bury war dead in a mass grave (via Egypt Today)
The IDF’s admission came in a Thursday briefing given to reporters by a senior military official. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said approximately 70,000 people have died in Gaza since the Oct 7, 2023 invasion of Israel by Hamas militants. As of Sunday, Gaza health officials say 71,795 have died.
Importantly, both the IDF official and the Gaza Health Ministry says these numbers do not include bodies yet to be discovered under the incomprehensible volume of rubble across Gaza. The Gaza ministry says its numbers only reflect deaths directly resulting from military fire, excluding those who’ve died from disease and malnutrition.
Neither party has yet broken down the death toll into combatants and civilians. However, leading up to the October ceasefire, the IDF said it had killed at least 22,000 combatants in Gaza. Placed atop this week’s 70,000 denominator, that claim now suggests that civilians account for a significant majority of those killed by the IDF. Netanyahu has boasted that the Gaza campaign has achieved the “lowest ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in the history of modern urban warfare.” However, an IDF report leaked in August concluded that 83% of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces were civilians.
The mere fact that the Gaza Health Ministry is part of a Hamas government was all that Israel’s and its proxies and supporters needed to promote the assumption that the ministry’s death tally was a lie — and to buy time for Israel to continue its shattering of Gaza, with financial, military and diplomatic backing of the the United States and other Western governments.
“The Biden administration, Congress, and the U.S. media played along with Israel’s lies and deception about the horrific death toll in Gaza — over 80 percent civilians; over half, women and children — so that they could gaslight Americans into continued support for Israel,” Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of human rights group DAWN, told the Intercept after the IDF’s capitulation on the death toll.
President Biden was among the first to who sought to discredit the fatality figures coming from Gaza. “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” Biden told a reporter 18 days after Oct 7, when Gaza authorities had already reported more than 6,000 dead from IDF fire. “I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”
Attacks on the Health Ministry’s fatality reporting came from every type of Israel supporter, from politicians to network-TV “analysts” to think tanks and individual social media users. The Intercept’s Jonah Valdez assembled a catalogue of such criticism; here’s a sampling:
“Every day, Hamas churns out misinformation. They inflate casualty numbers and make false accusations to smear Israel’s reputation,” said Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer.
“The data that we hear from Hamas is way, way exaggerated, the number of actually purely innocent civilians that have been killed are a tiny fraction,” said Alan Dershowitz, the Israel-promoting lawyer and law professor.
“Validating the public health arm of Hamas is like validating the public health arms of Al Qaeda and ISIS or the public health arms of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan,” said New York Rep. Ritchie Torres.
Decrying the media citations of Health Ministry data, the Anti-Defamation League said the Hamas-controlled ministry “distorts information about the casualties in Gaza.”
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a thinly-disguised component of the sprawling Israel lobby, criticized the Biden White House for eventually giving some credence to the Gaza Health Ministry’s reporting. “As a result of trusting numbers from a Hamas-controlled entity, the Biden administration has become more focused on the restraints it can put on Israeli forces than how it can help accelerate Hamas’s defeat,” said senior fellow David Adesnik.
Efforts to suppress the Gaza Health Ministry’s death toll went far beyond pointed rhetoric. In 2024, Israel-catering Republicans and Democrats in the US House passed an amendment that would have barred the State Department from citing the numbers. While it didn’t become law, a similar measure in the defense bill enacted later that year made it illegal for the Pentagon to cite the Health Ministry’s fatality numbers as “authoritative.” It’s doubtful that, in the wake of the IDF’s admission, a repeal is now in the offing.
Buildings in the southern Gaza city of Rafah lay in total ruin (Reuters)
Throughout the war, many third parties — from new bureaus to the World Health Organization and researchers at Johns Hopkins — deemed the Gaza Health Ministry numbers legitimate, based on analysis of the ministry’s detailed reporting, and the ministry’s record of accuracy over previous Israeli military campaigns.
Last summer, a Pentagon insider quietly said that, despite public statements by spokespeople and top officials, the US government believed the Health Ministry’s reporting too. “Along with the World Health Organization and United Nations, we (Department of Defense, Department of State and the U.S. Intelligence Community) consider the Gaza Health Ministry figures to be generally reliable (though not precise),” wrote Army Col Nathan McCormack in a comment exchange on X, using a semi-anonymous, personal account.
In a 2023 reply to another X user, McCormack wrote, “Israel’s responses always (always—not hyperbole) disproportionately target Palestinian civilians.” In June 2025, after Jewish News Syndicate publicized these posts and others that were sharply critical of Israel, McCormack was forced out of his Israel-and-Levant-focused role supporting the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Beyond dismissing the top-line number of deaths reported by the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel has also denied credible accusations that IDF soldiers have frequently and deliberately targeted civilians. In addition to the accounts of Palestinians, accusations have also poured forth from American and European doctors who’ve voluntarily traveled to Gaza and worked in its bombed and blood-splattered hospitals.
“I have two children that I have photographs of, that were shot so perfectly in the chest I couldn’t put my stethoscope over their heart more accurately — and directly on the side of the head, in the same child,” Dr. Mark Perlmutter, a Jewish orthopedic surgeon in North Carolina and vice president of the International College of Surgeons, told CBS Sunday Morning. “No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by the ‘world’s best sniper.’ And they’re dead-center shots.”
Surgeon, Dr. Mark Perlmutter, on what he witnessed in his first month in Gaza. On @CBSSunday
“No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by the world’s best sniper.” pic.twitter.com/wAoRWaNngo
— Samira Mohyeddin سمیرا (@SMohyeddin) July 22, 2024
Twenty other visiting doctors confirmed Perlmutter’s characterization of the IDF’s conduct. One, also an American, said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing on CT scans — “that this many children could be admitted to a single hospital with gunshot wounds to the head.” Other groups of doctors have given similar testimonies to other outlets. Israel has said the claim of IDF soldiers targeting civilians is “entirely unfounded and is categorically rejected.”
Israel has also denied widespread reports —substantiated by video — that soldiers shot at civilians gathering at aid distribution points set up last May as malnutrition surged in Gaza and global outrage mounted. By August, more than 1,300 Palestinians were reportedly killed as they sought aid. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called such claims an antisemitic “blood libel.” However, enlisted soldiers and officers told Haaretz that lethal fire was routinely used to control crowds. Said one:
“It’s a killing field. Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.”
Other whistleblowers said the IDF routinely killed civilians by dropping hand grenades from modified commercial drones on anyone who wandered into areas of Gaza that were declared off-limits by Israel — even though those forbidden areas weren’t marked on the ground. The IDF campaign has also been marked by attacks on hospitals and ambulances, including an incident where soldiers fired on Palestinian emergency vehicles without provocation, then crushed the vehicles and buried them with bulldozers. The IDF’s initial claim that the vehicles had acted suspiciously were belied by video captured by one of the men killed by Israeli fire.
Then there’s Israel’s relentless bombing that systematically rendered vast swaths of Gaza uninhabitable. The Israeli government condemned accusations that it was engaged in an ethnic cleansing campaign, but those denials fly in the face of explicit statements by senior members of Israel’s government.
“Within a few months…Gaza will be totally destroyed,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich assured a West Bank settlers conference last May. “The Gazan citizens will be concentrated in the south. They will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places.”
RAFAH, GAZA BEFORE & AFTER.
-TRT World pic.twitter.com/EusxcxEHdP
— International Defence Analysis (@Defence_IDA) July 3, 2025
After the Times of Israel and Haaretz reported the IDF senior official’s validation of Gaza’s death-toll numbers, an IDF spokesman attempted to deflect attention, using social media to say “the details published do not reflect official IDF data.” Stopping short of categorically refuting the official’s statements, the post seemed to reflect an IDF irked that an official prematurely spilled the beans without permission. “Any publication or report on this matter will be released through official and orderly channels,” the post concluded.
If and when the IDF finally lets foreign journalists roam in Gaza, we’ll likely see even more validation of war-crime accusations. As international criminal lawyer Jonathan Meta wrote in a weekend opinion piece at the Times of Israel, “If, for two years, a number was dismissed as propaganda, and then, suddenly, treated as a close approximation, what else was waved away not because it was false, but because it was inconvenient?”
Stark Realities: Invigoratingly unorthodox perspectives for intellectually honest readers. Join thousands of free subscribers at starkrealities.substack.com
* * *
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge
Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/02/2026 – 20:55
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-surrenders-truth-admits-70000-killed-gaza
Los Clinton aceptan testificar en investigación sobre Epstein en la Cámara de Representantes
Por STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — El expresidente Bill Clinton y la exsecretaria de Estado Hillary Clinton aceptaron el lunes testificar en una investigación de la Cámara de Representantes relacionada con el delincuente sexual convicto Jeffrey Epstein, aunque el republicano encargado de la pesquisa aclaró que aún no se había finalizado un acuerdo.
El representante James Comer, presidente de la Comisión de Supervisión y Reforma de la Cámara de Representantes, promovía cargos de desacato al Congreso en contra de los Clinton por ignorar una citación del Congreso cuando el panel recibió un correo electrónico de los abogados de los Clinton en el que se señalaba que la pareja aceptaría las demandas de Comer y “comparecerá para declaraciones en fechas mutuamente acordadas”.
Los abogados solicitaron que Comer accediera a no avanzar con los procedimientos por desacato. Pero Comer señaló que no retiraría los cargos de inmediato, los cuales conllevarían la amenaza de una multa sustancial y la posibilidad de pasar tiempo en prisión en caso de que recibieran la aprobación de la cámara baja y fueran procesados con éxito por el Departamento de Justicia.
“No tenemos nada por escrito”, declaró Comer a los periodistas, agregando que estaba dispuesto a aceptar la oferta de los Clinton, pero “depende de lo que digan”.
Las negociaciones de último minuto se produjeron mientras los líderes republicanos avanzaban con la resolución de desacato a través de la Comisión de Reglas de la Cámara, un último obstáculo antes de llegar al pleno de la Cámara para su votación. Era un momento significativo para el Congreso, la primera vez que podría declarar a un expresidente en desacato y avanzar con la amenaza de tiempo en prisión.
Comer rechazó el lunes una oferta de los abogados de los Clinton para que Bill Clinton realizara una entrevista transcrita y Hillary Clinton presentara una declaración jurada.
Comer insistía en que los Clinton se presentaran para hacer declaraciones juradas ante la comisión y cumplir con las citaciones del panel. Una carta a los abogados de los Clinton indica que habían ofrecido que Bill Clinton realizara una entrevista transcrita de cuatro horas sobre “asuntos relacionados con las investigaciones y enjuiciamientos de Jeffrey Epstein” y que Hillary Clinton presentara una declaración jurada.
“Los Clinton no pueden dictar los términos de las citaciones legales”, dijo Comer.
El expresidente y la ex secretaria de Estado se habían negado durante meses a cumplir con las citaciones para obtener su testimonio con relación a la investigación en torno a Epstein y sus allegados. Su abogado había intentado argumentar la validez de la citación.
Pero una vez que Comer amenazó con dar inicio a los procedimientos de desacato al Congreso, los Clinton comenzaron a negociar. La Comisión de Supervisión avanzó con los cargos de desacato criminal al Congreso el mes pasado. Nueve de los 21 demócratas del panel se sumaron al apoyo republicanos al exigir transparencia total en la investigación de Epstein. Tres demócratas también votaron a favor de avanzar con los cargos contra Hillary Clinton.
La relación de Bill Clinton con Epstein ha resurgido como un punto focal para los republicanos en medio del impulso por un ajuste de cuentas con relación a Epstein, quien se quitó la vida en 2019 dentro de una celda de la cárcel de Nueva York mientras enfrentaba cargos de tráfico sexual.
Clinton, al igual que varios otros hombres poderosos, tuvo una relación bien documentada con Epstein a finales de la década de 1990 y principios de los 2000. No ha sido acusado por sus interacciones con el difunto financiero.
Los Clinton criticaron ampliamente la decisión de Comer, diciendo que estaba politizando la investigación al tiempo que no responsabilizaba al gobierno federal por los retrasos en la difusión de los registros del caso por parte del Departamento de Justicia.
“Ellos negociaron en buena fe. Usted no”, dijo un portavoz de los Clinton, Angel Ureña, en respuesta a las amenazas de Comer. “Le dijeron bajo juramento lo que saben, pero a usted no le importa”.
Aun así, la perspectiva de una votación aumentó la probabilidad de que el Congreso empleara por primera vez uno de sus peores castigos contra un expresidente. Históricamente, el Congreso ha dado deferencia a los expresidentes. Ninguno ha sido obligado a testificar, aunque algunos lo han hecho voluntariamente.
El líder demócrata de la Cámara, Hakeem Jeffries, dijo el lunes que su bancada discutirá esta semana sobre las resoluciones de desacato, pero no se comprometió a reunir votos en contra de ellas.
“No quieren una entrevista seria, quieren una farsa”, dijo Jeffries.
___
Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
El portero Ter Stegen se lesiona el muslo en su segundo partido con Girona
GIRONA, España (AP) — El lunes se confirmó la lesión en el tendón de la corva izquierda del portero del Girona, Marc-André ter Stegen, tras su segundo partido desde que se unió al club catalán procedente del Barcelona.
Girona informó que Ter Stegen se someterá a más pruebas para finalizar el diagnóstico y establecer un cronograma de recuperación.
Ter Stegen, de 33 años, fue enviado a Girona en calidad de préstamo después de perder su posición de titular ante Joan García. Fue clave para ayudar a Girona a asegurar un empate 1-1 contra Getafe en su debut con el club la semana pasada. Girona perdió 1-0 contra Oviedo el sábado cuando se lesionó.
El movimiento de préstamo podría aumentar las posibilidades de Ter Stegen de ser el portero titular de Alemania en la Copa del Mundo después de que las lesiones lo limitaran a solo un puñado de partidos en los últimos 15 meses.
Jugó solo una vez para el Barcelona esta temporada y fue contra el Guadalajara de tercera división en la Copa del Rey el mes pasado.
Girona se encuentra en el 12do lugar en La Liga.
___
Deportes en español AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
Musk’s SpaceX Combines With xAI At $1.25 Trillion Valuation
Musk’s SpaceX Combines With xAI At $1.25 Trillion Valuation
Confirming earlier reports, late on Monday Elon Musk said SpaceX has acquired xAI, a deal that combines his powerful rocket-and-satellite business with his artificial-intelligence startup that is facing steep competition. SpaceX confirmed the deal Monday, posting a memo Musk sent out about the arrangement on its website.
The deal gives SpaceX a valuation of $1 trillion, and xAI a value of $250 billion, Bloomberg added citing sources. The combined company’s valuation of $1.25 trillion was announced to employees in a memo on Monday.
“SpaceX has acquired xAI to form the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform,
The deal brings together two of the largest closely held companies in the world. XAI raised funds at a $230 billion valuation in January, while SpaceX was set to go ahead with a share sale in December at a valuation of about $800 billion. Additionally, the combination will bring together a mature and dominant company in SpaceX, with one that is in a nascent stage. Musk’s xAI is also facing formidable competition from OpenAI, Anthropic and others to build large language models and big businesses around AI technology.
Terms of the offering including price and valuation weren’t disclosed in the statement on SpaceX’s website.
The company is still expecting to hold an initial public offering later this year, one of the people said. SpaceX had been planning an IPO that could raise as much as $50 billion, Bloomberg News reported earlier.
In his memo, Musk also said global electricity demand for AI can’t be met with data centers on the ground, and that space-based technology will be the only way to scale up AI over the long term (something we discussed in December, sharing several stock picks which have since more than doubled).
He pitched using solar power from space as a transformative option to ramp up computing resources needed for AI. The executive has been frequently discussing orbital data centers at events and on X.
Polymarket odds of a deal being formalized by June 30 initially came out around 20% on Jan 30 when the first reports of a combination emerged. They then spiked earlier today after the Bloomberg report, and are now trading at 100%.
*ELON MUSK’S SPACEX CONFIRMS MERGER WITH XAI IN COMPANY MEMO
And we have lift off as odds hit 98%. Congrats to those who bought. https://t.co/k2lqtGyOAR pic.twitter.com/JK6uCEeZ8X
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 2, 2026
On Friday, SpaceX said in a regulatory filing that it wants to deploy an orbital AI network with up to one million satellites over time. The company will need to secure regulatory permission to deploy that fleet. Even if it gets it, which will be problematic to say the least under any Democratic regime, it is unclear just how SpaceX will provide physical service for the airborne data centers.
It will also need to demonstrate further progress with Starship, a powerful two-stage rocket the company has been testing in flight since 2023. Starship hasn’t yet deployed an operational payload during the test missions, and SpaceX has grappled with setbacks during the development campaign.
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported SpaceX and xAI were planning the tie-up, and other news organizations reported on discussions about the deal.
The deal further entangles Musk’s various business ventures. The billionaire acquired Twitter in late 2022, renamed it X, then merged the site with his artificial intelligence startup xAI in a $33 billion deal. XAI, which also operates chatbot Grok, is an expensive operation, burning around $1 billion a month in service of its stated ambition to gain “a deeper understanding of our universe.” A merger with SpaceX will pool capital and talent, while providing access to computing power.
SpaceX stands out as arguably Elon’s most successful and consistent business. The company, the only American one that can routinely send astronauts to and from the International Space Station, is a key rocket launch provider for both NASA and the US Department of Defense, which the White House has moved to rename the Department of War. The increasing revenue it’s generating from the Starlink network of more than 9,000 satellites is even more significant, now outpacing launch sales and presenting a potential source of funding for xAI’s capital-intensive business.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/02/2026 – 20:30
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/musks-spacex-combines-xai-125-trillion-valuation
Clintons agree to testify in House Epstein investigation before contempt of Congress vote
WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed late Monday to testify in a House investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but the Republican leading the probe said an agreement had not yet been finalized.
Rep. James Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, was advancing criminal contempt of Congress charges against both Clintons Monday evening for defying a congressional subpoena when attorneys for the Clintons emailed staff for the Oversight panel, saying the pair would accept Comer’s demands and “will appear for depositions on mutually agreeable dates.”
The attorneys requested that Comer agree not to move forward with the contempt proceedings. Comer, however, said he was not immediately dropping the charges, which would carry the threat of a substantial fine and even incarceration if passed by the House and successfully prosecuted by the Department of Justice.
“We don’t have anything in writing,” Comer told reporters, adding that he was open to accepting the Clintons’ offer but “it depends on what they say.”
The last-minute negotiating came as Republican leaders were advancing the contempt resolution through the House Rules Committee — a final hurdle before it headed to the House floor for a vote. It was potentially a grave moment for Congress, the first time it could hold a former president in contempt and advance the threat of prison time.
Comer earlier Monday rejected an offer from attorneys for the Clintons to have Bill Clinton conduct a transcribed interview and Hillary Clinton submit a sworn declaration.
Comer was insisting that both Clintons sit for sworn depositions before the committee in order to fulfill the panel’s subpoenas. A letter from the committee to attorneys for the Clintons indicates that they had offered for Bill Clinton to conduct a 4-hour transcribed interview on “matters related to the investigations and prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein” and for Hillary Clinton to submit a sworn declaration.
“The Clintons do not get to dictate the terms of lawful subpoenas,” Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said.
The former president and secretary of state had resisted the subpoenas for months after the Oversight panel issued subpoenas for their testimony in August as it opened an investigation into Epstein and his associates. Their attorney had tried to argue against the validity of the subpoena.
However, as Comer threatened to begin contempt of Congress proceedings, the Clintons started negotiating towards a compromise. The Republican-controlled Oversight committee advanced criminal contempt of Congress charges last month. Nine of the committee’s 21 Democrats joined Republicans in support of the charges against Bill Clinton as they argued for full transparency in the Epstein investigation. Three Democrats also supported advancing the charges against Hillary Clinton.
Bill Clinton’s relationship with Epstein has reemerged as a focal point for Republicans amid the push for a reckoning over Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 in a New York jail cell as he faced sex trafficking charges.
Clinton, like a bevy of other high-powered men, had a well-documented relationship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He has not been accused of wrongdoing in his interactions with the late financier.
The Clintons remained highly critical of Comer’s decision, saying he was bringing politics into the investigation while failing to hold the Trump administration accountable for delays in producing the Department of Justice’s case files on Epstein.
“They negotiated in good faith. You did not,” a spokesperson for the Clintons, Angel Ureña, said in response to Comer’s threats on Monday. “They told you under oath what they know, but you don’t care.”
Still, the prospect of a vote raised the potential for Congress to use one of its most severe punishments against a former president for the first time. Historically, Congress has given deference to former presidents. None has ever been forced to testify before lawmakers, although a few have voluntarily done so.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said earlier Monday that his caucus would have a discussion on the contempt resolutions later in the week but remained noncommittal on whipping votes against them.
Jeffries said he was a “hard no” on contempt and accused Comer of focusing on political retribution rather than investigating the delayed release of case files. Democrats also say the Justice Department has not yet released all the material it has on the late financier.
“They don’t want a serious interview, they want a charade,” Jeffries said.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/02/clintons-house-epstein-investigation/
Millions raised fuel fierce fights for 5 open Illinois congressional seats ahead of March primary
With a little more than 40 days before a historic revamp of Illinois’ congressional delegation begins to take shape with the March 17 primary, candidates for five open congressional seats began separating themselves from competitors by raising millions of dollars for their campaign funds.
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Top candidates for the US House in Illinois’ 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th and 9th districts for the 2026 election
The five heavily blue congressional districts that span from Algonquin through parts of Chicago and down to Danville have nearly four dozen Democrats competing to replace three retiring members of Congress and two who are running for the U.S. Senate.
In the highly competitive 9th Congressional District, where 15 Democrats are vying to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky representing parts of Chicago’s North Side as well as north and northwest suburbs, two candidates began 2026 with more than $1 million in their political bank accounts, and four others had at least $500,000 ready to spend in the closing weeks of the campaign.
The nearby, northwest suburban 8th Congressional District features eight Democrats running to replace incumbent U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is seeking to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. A former member of Congress was the fundraising leader in that race, followed by an entrepreneur, a progressive who ran against Krishnamoorthi four years ago and a member of the Cook County Board.
In the 7th Congressional District, which runs from downtown Chicago west to suburban Hillside, 13 Democrats are fighting it out to replace U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, who is retiring as the longest-serving current member of Illinois’ congressional delegation. Nearby, the 4th Congressional District race, which runs from Chicago to the west suburbs, does not have a competitive primary to replace the retiring U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García.
But in the 2nd Congressional District that runs from Chicago’s Far South Side to Danville, as U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly takes on Krishnamoorthi for the Senate, 10 Democrats have together raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to fill her seat.
A dozen Republicans are also running for the five seats but have raised less cash so far. At the same time, a divide within the Democratic Party has begun to show as a handful of candidates have called out their competitors for seemingly receiving much of their support from people who have also supported Republicans or outside groups — in particular, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, as progressives increasingly reject that organization following Israel’s actions during the war in Gaza.
Here’s a look at the fundraising picture across Chicagoland so far.
9th Congressional District
In one of the most competitive and highest-fundraising races in Illinois, state Sen. Laura Fine of Glenview saw a surge in contributions in the final three months of 2025 as she raised nearly $1.3 million and had $1.4 million on hand in her bid to succeed Schakowsky.
But she wasn’t alone in reporting a million-dollar-plus war chest in the race. Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, who received Schakowsky’s endorsement shortly after the end of the reporting period, also had nearly $1.4 million on hand after raising about $659,000 in the final quarter of 2025.
Progressive political commentator Kat Abughazaleh of Chicago both raised big — nearly $1.2 million — and spent big, with $810,000 on hand.
Former FBI agent Phil Andrew raised about $485,000, including a $200,000 loan from himself, and had $961,000 to start 2026. State Rep. Hoan Huynh of Chicago also boosted his campaign with a $200,000 loan and had about $738,000 on hand, while Gen Z Skokie school board member Bushra Amiwala had about half a million dollars in the bank at the end of the year.
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, a candidate for the Illinois 9th district, speaks during a public forum at Warren Park in Chicago on Jan. 15, 2026. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
In recent months, Fine has seemingly received the tacit support of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and many of its previous donors, though she has denied seeking the group’s endorsement. State Sen. Mike Simmons of Chicago, who had about $135,000 at the end of the quarter, criticized Fine this week for receiving significant backing from people who had also supported President Donald Trump or AIPAC, which advocates for Israel’s interests and supports both Democrats and Republicans.
“If people who donate to AIPAC are donating to me, it’s because of the fact that they appreciate what I have done and my accomplishments, and they have faith in my candidacy, but I’m pretty darn independent,” Fine said Monday.
Abughazaleh chalked up her spending in part to large initial advertising buys, adding she’s “not trying to save up a war chest for another campaign.”
Economist Jeff Cohen had more than half a million dollars in the bank and Army veteran Sam Polan had about $139,000, though the majority of each of their contributions throughout the election cycle had come in the form of loans to themselves.
Congressional candidate Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh speaks with supporters after a hearing for indicted Broadview immigration protesters on Nov. 12, 2025, at Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
8th Congressional District
In the 8th Congressional District race, Melissa Bean, who held the office for three terms until 2011, led all candidates with about $1 million on hand to begin 2026, including a nearly $300,00 loan to her campaign.
Following her were Junaid Ahmed, who previously challenged Krishnamoorthi, with about $835,000 in his campaign fund, entrepreneur Neil Khot with $573,000, and U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate Dan Tully with $412,000. Cook County Board Commissioner Kevin Morrison had roughly $233,000 while Hanover Park Trustee Yasmeen Bankole had $171,000 in his campaign fund. Everyone else had less than $100,000.
Khot loaned his campaign $405,000 in the most recent quarter in addition to an even larger loan in the previous quarter, and Bankole loaned herself $136,000 at that time.
Among Republicans, entrepreneur Jennifer Davis led in cash on hand with almost $488,000, trailed by energy business founder Mark Rice with $173,000.
2nd Congressional District
Cook County Board Commissioner Donna Miller pulled ahead in the 2nd District’s fundraising race this quarter, raising more than $1 million and keeping nearly that much on hand in the district stretching from the South Side to downstate Danville.
State Sen. Robert Peters of Chicago was the second-highest fundraiser with $263,000 in the bank. Jesse Jackson Jr., the former representative for the district who’s trying to launch a comeback after resigning years ago amid a corruption probe, raised $111,000 and had about $90,000 in the bank.
State Sen. Willie Preston of Chicago and Matteson Village Clerk and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board Commissioner Yumeka Brown each raised five-figure sums last quarter.
Echoing criticisms among candidates in the 9th District, Peters’ campaign called out Miller in a news release Monday for receiving support from donors who had previously given to Trump or to AIPAC and its affiliated super PAC.
7th District
In the 7th Congressional District, state Rep. La Shawn Ford, who has served in the Illinois House for nearly 20 years and is being endorsed by outgoing incumbent Davis, raised nearly $150,600 in the final three months of 2025 and had more than $307,000 on-hand to start the year. Ford took out a $100,000 personal loan last quarter for his campaign.
The fundraising front-runner is a repeat from last quarter.
Jason Friedman, former president of the property and management company Friedman Properties, leads the contenders in money raised, with $304,000 raised in the fourth quarter. The political outsider candidate has a little over $1 million in his campaign account.
Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, who finished runner-up to Davis in 2024, and former U.S. Department of Justice attorney Reed Showalter both raised six-figure amounts in the fourth quarter. Conyears-Ervin had more than $215,000 in cash on hand, while Showalter had $134,000 left in his campaign account.
A University Medical Chicago Medical Center emergency medical doctor and author, Dr. Thomas Fisher, ended the fourth quarter with nearly $250,000 raised and $455,000 in his campaign bank account. Former Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin raised nearly $200,000. Anabel Mendoza, a Gen Z progressive, quadrupled her fundraising from under $24,000 in the third quarter to nearly $120,000 in the fourth.
Activist Kina Collins, who is making her fourth bid for the 7th District seat after losing the primary in 2022 by six percentage points to Davis, did not report her fundraising on time but in a phone interview, said her reports will be up within the next two days.
4th District
Garcia’s controversial last-second retirement announcement paved the way for his chief of staff Patty Garcia to be the only Democrat on the primary ballot. Patty Garcia, no relation to the congressman, raised $122,500 last quarter.
Though they won’t be challenging Patty Garcia on the primary ballot, independent Mayra Macías, Latino Victory Fund political director, outraised Patty Garcia at $125,000. Democratic Socialist Chicago Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez also announced his independent campaign last week. He reported raising $7,000 so far.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/02/illinois-congressional-fundraising-2025/
Encargada de negocios de EEUU se reúne con presidenta de Venezuela con miras a reabrir embajadas
CARACAS (AP) — La encargada de negocios para Venezuela, Laura Dogu, se reunió el lunes con la presidenta en funciones de Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, casi un mes después del operativo militar estadounidense que depuso y capturó al expresidente Nicolás Maduro.
“Hoy me reuní con Delcy Rodríguez y Jorge Rodríguez”, presidente de la Asamblea Nacional de mayoría oficialista y hermano de la mandataria venezolana, para reiterar las tres fases que el @SecRubio (el secretario de Estado Marco Rubio) ha planteado sobre Venezuela: estabilización, recuperación económica y reconciliación, y transición”, indicó Dogu a través de la cuenta oficial de la Oficina Externa de los Estados Unidos para Venezuela en la red social X.
Dogu, quien ha sido embajadora en países como Nicaragua y Honduras, publicó una fotografía junto a la presidenta durante la reunión en el palacio presidencial de Caracas.
El encuentro se produjo dos días después de que Dogu arribó a la capital venezolana con miras a la reapertura de las misiones diplomáticas en ambos países, marcando un hito en la recuperación paulatina de las relaciones bilaterales.
Los gobiernos de Caracas y Washington rompieron relaciones diplomáticas en febrero de 2019 por decisión de Maduro y cerraron sus embajadas luego que el presidente Donald Trump en su primer mandato apoyó al líder opositor Juan Guaidó, entonces titular de la Asamblea Nacional, quien en enero de ese año se declaró presidente interino de Venezuela.
Rodríguez fue juramentada como presidenta encargada el 5 de enero en reemplazo de Maduro ante la Asamblea Nacional. La entonces vicepresidenta era, de acuerdo con la Constitución, la primera en la línea de sucesión.
Tras el encuentro, el canciller venezolano Yván Gil destacó que se abordaron las “diferencias” entre ambos países y se repasó la agenda común “sobre todo en los temas energéticos, temas comerciales, temas políticos, temas económicos” que se desarrollarán en los próximos meses.
En ese sentido, el canciller anunció que el diplomático Felix Plasencia, que fungía como jefe de Misión de Venezuela en Reino Unido, fue designado por la mandataria como representante de Venezuela ante Estados Unidos.
Dogu es la “representante diplomática de Estados Unidos en Caracas y muy pronto tendremos a nuestro representante diplomático” en Washington para “acelerar el trabajo diplomático, el trabajo político y el trabajo de desarrollar esta agenda común”, aseveró el canciller en una declaración difundida por la televisión estatal.
Gil resaltó que Venezuela espera construir “una agenda productiva, una agenda de paz, una agenda de respeto, una agenda que calce a la perfección con los postulados del Derecho Internacional, de la Carta de Naciones Unidas, de la soberanía de nuestros Estados y podamos definitivamente enrumbar las relaciones” bilaterales.
El proceso para la reanudación de relaciones se inició el 9 de enero pasado con la visita de una delegación del gobierno de Trump a Caracas que evaluó condiciones “técnicas y logísticas” relacionadas con el cumplimiento de funciones diplomáticas.
La presidenta encargada ha dicho que el “proceso exploratorio” orientado a reabrir las embajadas tiene como propósito “abordar las consecuencias derivadas de la agresión y del secuestro del Presidente de la República y la Primera Dama, así como abordar una agenda de trabajo de interés mutuo”.
Tras su captura, Maduro fue trasladado a territorio estadounidense y el 5 de enero compareció ante un tribunal en Nueva York para enfrentar los cargos de narcoterrorismo de los que le acusa el gobierno de Trump. El depuesto mandatario se declaró no culpable.
